Default editor for files without file name extension in Mac OS X

Question

I want to open files without file name extension, including .dotsystemfiles (e.g. .htaccess or .vimrc) with a different editor than TextEdit. Doing the regular Change All... in the Get Info panel won't do the trick as it gives the following error:

Answer 1

You need to change the editor for the text/plain mime type or public.plain-text UTI. The regular Get Info dialog changes the association for the file name extension, which these files don't have.

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Get RCDefaultApp and install it.

Open System Preferences » Default Apps » Apps. Select your desired default editor, and look for either of the above in the application's list of supported types.

Select the entry, and click Set as Default. You're done. Both opening from Finder and the command-line open will open your new default editor.

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This also changes all .txt files and the like. I don't think this can be prevented, since OS X thinks both these and extension-less files are public.plain-text/text/plain.

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To do this without RCDefaultApp, edit Edit ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist.

Add an entry under LSHandlers, containing the UTI (key LSHandlerContentType, e.g. public.plain-text) and application bundle identifier (LSHandlerRoleAll, e.g. com.macromates.textmate).

It looks like this in Property List Editor: